Announcing our new Interim Executive Director
A note on behalf of Miami Workers Center Board of Directors
Over the past three months, under the leadership of Board Chair, Trenise Bryant, Miami Workers Center’s Board of Directors have worked together to hire an Interim Executive Director that meets the needs of our growing organization and members. We chose to move forward with an Interim role in order to create the space and time we need to develop the most effective, sustainable and transformative processes possible during this transitional period.
Over the past several years, the Miami Workers Center has grown tremendously, and we see this transition as the perfect chance to take a moment to pause and make mindful decisions about who we are as an organization and how we want to move forward and continue through our FemmeAgenda framework. As an organization that is accountable to serving the interests of Black and brown women, girls and femmes, it is critical that we take this time to do both the internal and external work necessary to meet our mission of building the power and self-determination of south Florida’s most oppressed and disproportionately impacted communities.
The interim role will steward us in running an organizational assessment and set up the Miami Workers Center for a successful transition.
To help guide us in this work Santra Denis, our new Interim Executive Director, started April 13th.
A South Florida native, Santra served Catalyst Miami since 2010, she has served in several positions including Chief Programs Officer and Vice President of Community Prosperity. Santra has extensive experience working in nonprofits, including managing and developing budgets, overseeing programs and projects, writing and managing grants, and building and supporting partnerships.
Daughter of a domestic worker, Santra developed her own activism as an anti-racist community advocate and is committed to centering BIPOC community leadership and racial justice in our progressive movement. Santra has been very active in her community, founding and leading Avanse Ansanm, an organization that engages, connects, and builds power among Haitian-American Millennials and co-hosting a radio/Facebook Live show, The VSS Hour. Santra serves on several community boards, including the Community Advisory Board at Florida International University Research Center in Minority Institutions and Miami Dade County’s Office of New Americans. She is a New Leaders Council Fellow and a Sant La Fellow. She has been recognized by the Broward County Commission on the Status of Women as a Valiant Woman of the Vote; Ruth’s List Broward as a “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” Award Recipients; the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce of Florida as part of the Inaugural class of Leaders for the esteemed award of “20 Under 40 Young Professionals” as well as “40 under 40” Leaders of Today, among others. Santra graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s in health science, and from Florida International University with a Master of Public Health in Policy and Management. As Interim ED, she is eager to prepare Miami Workers center to kick-off a powerful next decade of power, community building and advocacy campaigns.
We want to also take a moment to extend our gratitude to Marcia Olivo, who served as Miami Workers Center Executive Director for the past four years.
